(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend

The song is about a cowboy who has a vision of red-eyed, steel-hooved cattle thundering across the sky, being chased by the ghosts of damned cowboys. One warns him that if he does not change his ways he will be doomed to join them, forever "trying to catch the Devil's herd across these endless skies". The song's story has a marked resemblance to the northern European mythic Wild Hunt.

The Spike Jones version was recorded on May 24, 1949 and released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-3741. Copies of the original release, containing lyrics ridiculing RCA stockholder Vaughn Monroe, are rare. The recording parodies the original Monroe recording, injecting much of Jones' quintessential humor along the way.

In the UK, the best-known version is that by The Ramrods, which reached number 8 in 1961.

Johnny Cash made a recording in 1979 which was faithful to the original. He also recorded it live with Willie Nelson for 1998's VH1 Storytellers. In that recording, Willie Nelson misses the start of the third verse because he forgets the text, and ends up switching the third and fourth verses.

The rock band The Outlaws made a recording in 1980 that left out the last verse.

The Alberta Celtic rock group Captain Tractor recorded an unusual version for their 1994 album Land. New lyrics describe the frenzy of corruption in a prairie town at the climax of a real estate bubble. Rather than fire-and-brimstone Christian imagery, the warning takes the form of vaguely Zen lamentations—"The winds still blow / The rains still fall / The trees don't seem to care AT ALL!"

The children's singer Fred Penner performed a child-friendly version of the song and recorded it on his 1980 album The Cat Came Back. Penner's rendition has the phantom cowboy shout "If you want to save your soul you must count ONE cow...TWO cows...THREE cows...FOUR cows...BWA HA HA HA HA!!"

Parodies

Various contemporary Celtic artists, including Éire Óg and the Irish Brigade, have performed this song with an alternative set of lyrics, known as "SAM Song", which glamorizes struggles in Northern Ireland between the paramilitary group calling itself the "Provisional Irish Republican Army" and British Police and Armed Forces. The term "SAM" from the song stands for "Surface to Air Missile", and the song is about destroying British helicopters, though no helicopters have been destroyed in this manner by the IRA. Many artists, particularly in the United States, are unaware of the background of the alternative lyrics, and so performing the song does not necessarily imply terrorist or republican sympathies.

Gary Larson has touched on the theme in his popular cartoon The Far Side. The cartoon features a woman calling out "Henry! Hurry or you're gonna miss it - ghost riders in the kitchen!" as a pair of phantom riders herd cattle through her home. Larson doesn't think much of the cartoon now, dismissing it as what happens "when you stay up too late at night trying to think of something funny.

The song is used by supporters of the Aston Villa Football Club. The lyrics are changed to "Holtenders in the Sky" in reference to the fans who sit in Villa Park's famous stand, The Holte End.

The Corries performed a version written by Bill Hill which they claimed in their introduction to be the original of the song, titled "The Portree Kid" with the chorus referring to "The teuchter that cam' frae Skye".

Singer/comedian Sean Morey has recorded a parody called "Ghost Chickens in the Sky", in which the ghosts of chickens hunt a chicken farmer. It ends with the line, "they cooked him extra crispy/and served him with coleslaw". Moosebutter, an a cappella group out of Utah, has a recording of this song.

Celtic punk band The Prodigals recorded a version of the Irish traditional song "Spancill Hill", featuring the lyrics of that song set to the music (and including the "yippey yi-yay" chorus) from "Ghost Riders in the Sky" on their self-titled debut album.

Spike Jones, during a live show, sung the song along with one of his bandmates. Although they sang it word for word, they did so while portraying elderly, incompetent cowboys.